The Oakland Athletics report to camp today for a season of rebuilding, but the trials of the 2008 baseball squad are nothing compared to the other A's-owned sports franchise. Tonight, the MLS expansion San Jose Earthquakes come back to life and play their first exhibition game since the old Earthquakes moved to Houston a couple years ago. Which A's franchise will rebuild faster? Well, it's still a plausible, if unlikely, scenario, that the A's could win this year. Meanwhile, the Quakes' roster for tonight's game only lists twelve players. The lone substitute is a backup goalie.

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This blog entry is pretty thin, too. Let me add this piece of frivolity to fatten things up:

Buffalo Kemp Buffalo Kemp bison bison Buffalo Kemp.

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I'm too lazy to do the math, but I think the Quakes' roster is older, on average, than the A's roster.

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And while we're on the topic of expansion franchises that replaced one that moved away, BP's Rany Jazayerli has started a new Royals blog.

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The new Quakes will play mostly in Santa Clara, but they will play their first regular season home game in the Oakland Coliseum on April 12. Later in the season, there will be two other games in Oakland, both against David Beckham and the LA Galaxy. I certainly hope the field doesn't get chewed up like it does after Raider games. Will they put the football seats in? There's no chart on the Quakes web site yet. I remember going to an Oakland Stompers game at the Coliseum once, but I can't remember which direction the field went. Wow, that was 30 years ago. Man, I'm getting old.